Taiwan announced 16 new local COVID cases and one death on Tuesday. In the afternoon, it took delivery of 580,000 AstraZeneca vaccines purchased from the manufacturer. Taiwan has now received about 20% of its order with AstraZeneca. Also on Tuesday, Taiwan began allowing people to sign up for a new vaccine developed by the domestic biotech firm Medigen.

A plane carrying 580,000 AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in Taiwan from Bangkok at 3:30 in the afternoon.

The vaccines were part of a 10 million dose order Taiwan placed directly with AstraZeneca. So far, Taiwan has received about 1.9 million of those doses.

Chen Shih-chung
CECC
These are the AstraZeneca vaccines we bought ourselves. Including this afternoon’s batch, we have already received about 1.885 million doses. The expiry date of this batch of vaccines is Nov. 30, 2021.
On Tuesday, vaccine appointments opened up for adults aged 38 and up. Although they were told to wait for a text message notification, some eligible people discovered that they could go straight to the website and book a time.

Chen Shih-chung
CECC
Everybody knows when the vaccine appointments open up. Do you need to receive a text from the 1922 hotline before you can book an appointment? No. Whether you receive a text message or not, if you are eligible then you can book. If you are not eligible, then you won’t be able to book.

With vaccine supply on the rise, Taiwan launched a new round of waitlist registration Tuesday afternoon at 2. All adults 18 and older are asked to sign up if they haven’t done so already. For the first time, Taiwan’s own Medigen COVID vaccine is an option that registrants can select.

Chen Shih-chung
CECC
We are providing a new option – that is, the Medigen vaccine. But the date of Medigen’s rollout has yet to be determined. We have to look at the overall supply. Medigen is authorized for emergency use on people 20 and older.

If they so desire, people already on the waitlist can change their vaccine preferences.

So far in Taiwan’s vaccination campaign, a little over 7 million doses have been administered, and nearly 29% of the population has received at least one dose. With the advent of Medigen and more AstraZeneca, Taiwan hopes to protect more and more people, as quickly as possible.